Guess What? Chicken BUTT! Coop is DONE! It's a Chicken Tractor!

UPDATE ~ If you scroll all the way to end, I added the finished product ~ so the tractor is done ~ now for the real coop........... ( better not mention this to Wood Genius just yet... best to let it lie for a day or three..... hehehehe... BWAAAHAHAHAHA... ;-D )

WOO HOO!! SO ~ we got the chicken coop done!! Well, ok, ALLLLLmost done ~ the kids & I still have to paint it. And I am thinking that good ol' Barn Red with white accents is just gonna be IT ~ what do you all think? Afterall, that WOULD tie in with the shed & the treehouse.

So ~ I know what you all are waiting for ~ PICTURES!
And we DO have pictures!

This is meant to be the portable chicken tractor, or also known as the chicken arc. It is based loosely ( ever so loosely) on the boughton forsham models that can be found online. Since we have 16 chickens right now, and will have 10 after the fair, we needed to make our tractor a little larger.

We decided to go with the A-frame style, as it made up for less mass in the long run to transport. And with Wood Genius making it, we knew it could get complicated fast. Here is a pic of the basic frame with supports in the corners, so that nothing wracks when it is being transported.

oops ~ lazy blogging, sorry ~ sideways pic. Just a close-up of the joinery ~ easy sqeazy so far.

Here is a pic of the feeders, on extending drawer guide arms. Wood Genius used a 3/8 drill to drill through 3 times in a line so that the arms could extend out, thus saving your back. That way, the feeder & waterer can just be hooked on and slid back, or slid forward to remove & re-fill.

These are heavy-duty drawer guides, and will easily hold the weight of the galvanized metal 2 gallon double walled waterer & the five gallon feeder.

(Had to move it back into the shop to work on it, as it was getting quite dark out.) Here you can see the flooring going in. It should be mentioned that the wood being used is 2x2's, & I believe 3/8 material.

Here you can see the chicken ramp on hinges, plus the framework for the ramp.

This shows the nest boxes & the flooring installed. There are 3 nest boxes, and we made them a little larger inside, but still a nice snug hole to crawl through & feel safe with.

Now you can see the roosts installed, as well as the back and top of the tractor. You can also see the vents at the apex. We used a very strong wire for this. Also visible is the 1 1/2" gap between the inner melamine wall and the outer 3/8" sheeting wall. This, & the back side, is where Wood Genius installed 1 1/2" styrofoam core insulation. The door is also insulated.

Vents are a bit more visible here. Also visible is the pulley system to raise & lower the chicken ramp. There is the rope & the nail to hold it when the ramp is closed.

Follow the rope over, and down it goes through a hole drilled in the flooring.

This is the pulley in the roof. These pulleys make sure that the rope doesn't get run ragged by snagging on the wood. The pulley is just hanging by a screw screwed through.

oops, another sideways pic. The rope is shown here heading through the vent above the nest boxes, to another pulley.

Voila! A close-up of the outside pulley above the nest boxes.

Ok, this is just showing the foamcore.

And what have we here? A BUTT shot! Can't say "Guess what? Chicken BUTT!" without a butt shot at least SOMEwhere. heheheh. Wouldn't he be so annoyed if he saw this? :-D

However, I actually have a better reason for the pic. It is showing the door fitting on.

I forgot to add that this is actually one of those ~green~ coops, because almost every single bit of wood on here was harvested from left-overs, the dump ( see that pile of 2x4's?), old fence parts, and various other places.


And here is the door on. The handles are close enough together for one person to lift if they are bigger, & far enough apart for two smaller kids to lift off together. (It's good for them, makes them work as a team.....) :-D

Hmmmmm... trying to remember why I uploaded this pic... Maybe just to show the ramp in closed position. Also, see the rungs are spaced so that even with a fair amount of snow or chicken goo, the ramp can still be closed completely. Also showing the roosts, which are positioned higher than the nest boxes to discourage pooey eggs. ( The chickens will choose to roost in the nest boxes if they are higher... I don't know why, it's a chicken thing..)

Here's the whole contraption, alMOST all the way finished. From the side/back.

From the side/front. Note the wooden latches to make sure the nest boxes are all the way shut. The little doors will make egg gathering easy.

Latches secure the door as well, just for predators' sake. (Little kids in the neighborhood can't reach that high... that's pretty much the main concern.) Also, the vents open and latch shut... We get winters down to -20F, so the chickens will need to be warm. While not shown, the heat lamp will be able to be dropped down through a hole drilled in the roof, and we will just use an extension cord ( heavy duty, shop type) to either light the heat lamp or, when they are older, to extend their perception of daylight so that egg-laying continues through the winter.

Last night & today, Wood Genius installed the hardware fabric around the base. ( which, by the way, isn't really fabric at all ~ what a cruel joke to play on a fabriholic...it's really just metal wire with a whole bunch of little bitty square holes in it. ) And now he is off buying the wheel set-up, which will consist of large lawn mower wheels, connected & used in the same manner as the boughton forsham chicken arc/tractor. These will be installed on the nest box side, as it is the heaviest. He will also install a large bar on the end opposite the nest boxes, so that we can reposition the tractor once a week. (During the winter, this will obviously not be easily moved, so we will add additional run space, connected to the bottom of the tractor, via the removable screen end.)

And the last thing to do will be to paint it up, and add chickens! {:>)=

Well, I am going to keep adding pics here as he finishes it up ~ I keep running out there to take pics for each phase.

Ok, so here you can kind of see the removable screen door there on the end, with a latch to close it up tightly. You might also notice the dolly and the suspiciously wet ground.

Yup, it's true! Here in Idaho, it could be shining one minute and literally SNOWING the next!! Where is the justice in that?!? See that? Green grass with a snowy blanket ~ AAARRGGHHHHH !!!!

UPDATE!!! ~ YEAH! It stopped snowing and actually got sunny enough that Bek painted the tractor ~ Next post ~ the Garden project!!

Tree House update!

Well folks (isn't that just so comfy-like-I-know-yah-all? :-D) I took a poll. and Barn Red won! SOOOO ~ here are some updated pics of the treehouse, sans all the white trim yet, but at least the barn red bit is done.

Wood Genius installed the windows, screens & doorways, as well as the deck railing.


Almost all of the wood in this treehouse is ~re-claimed~. Most of it has been endcuts or left-overs from jobs that Wood Genius had. Even the plexi-glass windows and screens are re-cycled. We didn't want to use actual plate glass, since this treehouse will be used by kids ~ LOTS of kids! :-D Also, the supports & framework are all of sound lumber. Again, just being on the safe side.

This is the little dutch door, with the secret hand-stuff-through-the-door cut-out on the lower half. Either the top or the bottom may be opened.

Here you can see a better view of the deck. This will also be in white accents. I suppose you can kind of see the french doors leading out to the deck as well.


This is the bald little kitchen(ette!) window, where Wood Genius intends to hang a flower box/battlement, depending on your gender. But it's gonna be a battlement with flowers in it! :-D We'll likely want to put the same under the dinette windows as well. Naturally once the leaves grow in, it will look much more treehouse-y.

And we all loved Corrie's idea of growing ivy up through the whole thing. I will have to see if it will choke out the tree too much. This old tree is a Dutch Elm, and it fell sick to that horrid nemesis, the dutch elm disease. However, through various loving efforts of extra nutrition, watering, clipping, removal of affected limbs, and basic pray-that-the-tree-house-tree-will-survive nursing tactics, it seems to bounce back to better health every year.

Now that the treehouse is almost finished, it's time ( it's REALLY time) to start looking at housing for the chicks. We have to clean out their brooder twice a day to make sure they don't stink up the house. But they are getting quite large. I swear they have already doubled in size, and they are only 2 weeks old today! Those little biddies grow like weeds! We have had a nice day or two, where temps were in the 60's to 70's, so the chicks got to go outside & play for a bit in the little ~play-yard~ Wood Genius made. I hope & pray that we continue to have decent weather, since I really don't want to keep these little ladies in the house any longer than necessary. If they were getting raised by a real hen ( instead of the brooder light/all of us), I am sure she would have had them tromping about the yard regardless of the weather. At any rate, I'll do the next post on them, and the coop.

Thomas Jefferson Homeschool Method

Well Folks ~
here is one more plug for homeschool ~ This is the method we use at our home, with the eclectic style of application. That means a Thomas Jefferson Education, applied eclectically. Also, once again, I would like to plug the best book I have ever read on homeschooling, called "A Thomas Jefferson Education", by Oliver Van DeMille. I went to a seminar by him once, a Math seminar. I am so NOT a math person~ but ~ at the end of that seminar, I can tell you I was interested enough in the subject to have taken well over 10 pgs of notes, got some excellently reccomended math classic books, & actually ENJOYED the heck out of it!
His book is the reason my husband & I decided to switch over to homeschooling in the first place.

Here is the plug for A Thomas Jefferson Education that CBS did on some folks who use the method:

Chicken Adventures ~ Baby Chicks!

So this is our latest homeschool adventure ~ we now have 12 little peeping balls of fuzz!!! And they are SOO cute!! And we are SOOO popular with all the neighborhood kids! And I'll be SOOOO impressed if half of them make it into adult-hood ~ cuz they are SOOOOOO loved!

Ok, so ~ enough of that ~ :-D ~ Let's look at the little ladies. {:^-- (<<<--isn't that a cute chicken-head?)

First, we read up on chickens, & egg-layers for our area, & what it takes to brood them, & raise pullets for laying, and all of that. Then we went to a wonderful little family-run farm (small world, turned out Wood Genius knew the gentleman who owned it through Scouting) where they let us go & look at their hens, along with all the other animals they had. ( There were goats, lambs, peacocks, & I think even a cow or two.)

They had mostly Rhode Island Reds & Sex-links, but they also said that some are ~indiscriminate mix & match~.

Our next step was to prepare a brooder, & order the chicks. On the day of their arrival, we heated up the brooder so it would be all nice & warm for the chicks, & then waited with baited breath. And finally, AT LAST ~ They came!

This is a Rhode Island Red, a Barred Rock, & an Auracauna.

Here you can also see the Buff Orpington's, and the White Leghorns. Also, notice that mason jar feeder. These little ladies are only on their second day of life, first day at our house, and they have already consumed almost an entire mason jar of medicated chick starter. AND, they have gone through an entire mason jar of water as well. Which makes for quite the lovely toodles ( or shall we say *chicken gravy*).

These are Liz's Buff Orpington's.

This is is Izzy's Auracauna.

Bek chose Barred Plymouth Rocks.

Aren't they SOOO SWEETTT??

And perky, too. So far, we haven't had any problems with mean chickens, but they have already established a pecking order.


Kat chose White Leghorns.

And Jess & I chose Rhode Island Red's.

This little lady is the only one I am worried about ~ She is sort of listless, sleeps more than the other chicks, & she is also tinier than the other ones. She toddles around with her wings sort of dragging. Here she is, ~ going.....

Gooooiiinnnggg..........

Gone! The next step, is where she lays her beak down on the ground and just sort of hunches there, snoring away.

Anyway, more on the Chicken Adventures soon! Hopefully, they make it through the night, other wise, we'll have 5 highly distraught youth, as well as about 7 sad little neighbors. (All of whom wish, on a regular basis, that they too could be homeschooled.)

(:^-- {;>)= (:^--

Treehouse ~ Or is it tree house?

Ok, so we have this treehouse that we have been working on for a while now. Wood Genius has recently been re-invigorated into finishing this project ~ possibly because all of us have made a pact to finish it this spring, AND we are actually doing it. Naturally, whenever I work on a project, he feels a massive desire to get involved as well. This is actually part of my master planning. You see, the truth is, I am not all that hot or technical with wood, mathematics, and dangerous wood-cutting tools. However.... hehehe ... BWAAAAhahahahahah.... I DO possess enough sense ~ CUNNING sense ~ to realize that Wood Genius IS. AND, I also know this secret ~ it drives him INSANE to see me royally screwing up a project. ..... :-D.... And hence we obtain take-off.

Yes, I know, it's all so Huck Finn of me, but you know, there is a great deal of pleasure in the machinations.

Well, I could go on, but why? You get the idea. Like she said in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", "Yes, the man is the head of the house, but the woman, she is the neck, and the neck, it turns the head, aaannnyyy way she want to."

That's the idea, anyway. It also helps a LOT that this particular project is one that Wood Genius is IMMENSELY interested in. He has had SOOO much fun doing it. So, without further ado, I will show some pics of our as-yet-unfinished treehouse.

Ughh ~ the yard looks awful ~ it's that gushy 10-tons-of-snow-just-melted-into-your-yard plus all-the-crap-you-didn't-clean-up-last-fall look.

There is even some snow still left ~ however, we are trying hard not to focus on that, and we hope you will too. :-D Perhaps if we all concentrate on no more snow together, it will really come true, and spring can once again come to Narnia.

This is Wood Genius with the entire neighborhood up in the treehouse, scheming on the final touches. The table & benches that turn into a huge sleeping area, the little kitchenette, complete with a pump & thus ~running water~, book shelves, hooks for flashlights, windows that open, battlements ( or flowerboxes, depending on the gender) to be used in rubberband-gun wars, pulley's for the baskets, & about a hundred other fun ideas. One little gal came up with a grand idea of making a split front door, with a peephole on the bottom half.

Another child decided that French doors leading out to the miniscule deck would be enchanting.

And Wood Genius came up with this great handle to make sure that no-one could ever get locked out there.

And here are the windows & screens that just need plexi-glass & hinges added.

See? Not even a layer of dust! We are actually going to install these tomorrow, & paint & install the doors after that. I have been swaying back & forth between painting the outside of the treehouse in a barn red, with white accents, ( it would match the shed) or staining it with a natural cedar ( sort of an orange-ish tint). The cedar color would probably blend into the tree & yard better, but I think the red would be far cuter. Naturally, Wood Genius & young son are not for the *cute* version. They would rather have the *spy-guy hiding in the woods secretively* version.

So, I am taking a poll: Which is better? Barn red (very dark, with white accents)

or Natural orangey-ish cedar stain

Comedy & Tragedy

Et tu, Brute? ( yah, yah, yah, but it fits the picture)

I find this little lesson on Ancient Greek history rather amusing ~ a tragic comedy indeed!

Ένας αρουραίος στο σπίτι μυρίζει ~ αλλά μια μυρωδιά στοσπίτι μπορεί να είναι δύσκολη στον αρουραίο έξω.

nos venit , nos video , nos victum ~

~yes, it's a moldy oldy, but a goodie woodie ~

The kids are learning Latin from the Rosetta Stone homeschool series ~ excellent, & I HIGHLY reccomend it! They speak better Latin than I do at the moment.

Among other things, we also had great fun sculpting & labeling the heart

and the digestive system.

I would show you Izzy's version of this, however, it was a little too crude. Yes, he included the stinky, lumpy brown end results. All I can do is point to Wood Genius & say, "That must be Your son!" (to which Mr. Wood Genius simply smiles, flicks a conspiratorial smirk in Izzy's general direction and proudly acknowledges all stink relations.....)

We did weavings, ( part of our trip through Europe & Asia with Marco Polo)


as well as model ships.

This candy lab had to be one of the most disgusting labs ever ~ in part because we actually tasted the results of our lab-work. ( It was dealing with the different chemical reactions of sugar heated to various temps, & the like.) Included were rootbeer, gummi candies, marshmallows, & bubblegum. BLeaahhgg!

Here we have Valentine's Day woven heart baskets. They were quite fun & a little challenging. I am thinking some origami would be great as well. Definitely going to be included when we cover Japan.

And of course, the dead, drowned fly experiment. We swatted this fly without squishing him, ( a stunning blow :-0 ) drowned him ( held him under water till he quit struggling... ooohhh .. how sadistic!..), let him sit there drowned for a few hours, and then put him on a bed of salt, and covered him with salt ~ & Voila!~ within moments ~ re-incarnated to fresh NEW FLY status! It was beautiful. We all wept. And then smashed him for good. Gotta love homeschool ~ smashing him for good afterward wouldn't have been very politically correct in Public school. Yep, that's why WE homeschool... so we can still smash the flies and be gleeful in our doing so. (:7-- <<<---

That's a chicken face ~ pre-cursor to the next blog entry, & our latest homeschool adventure.

Spring has Sprung! ~ Sorta

Well, I have to admit it ~ the springy new-seeds-&-planting-devices-so-you-can-feel-less-hemmed-in-by-the-seemingly-ever-present-visage-of-a-snowbound-yard-stuff bug has bitten us all HARD this year! Those demographically correct advertising consultants certainly do know their stuff ~

A quick stroll through Wally-world, Home Repo, & Slowes will truly get the green blood pumping ~ straight into that thumb! And if you have an especially robust case of it, the green stuff well may spread straight up your wrist and into your wallet as well. I know I was affected.

How badly? Wweeeeeeeellllllll...........

Pretty badly.

Actually.

So badly that I had to gear an entire week around garden plotting, graphing, layout, seed purchasing ( did you know that our $1 store had seeds at 8/$1? WAHHOOO! *YES* I succumbed...) , and other sundry starting cells, & cold-framing accoutrements. Heck, I even included a ~science experiment~ in the lot, making it count for that as well.

This is a bean that we soaked for a few days so that it would easily split in two. Thus the tiny baby plant inside can be seen, even with the naked eye.

And of course, it can be seen even better with a little magnification.

After we learned about the parts of a plant, and their specific duties, we delved into garden plotting, planting zones, soil requirements, lighting requirements, fertilization & insect control, and of course, the big *What do we want to plant ..... that is reasonable... in our zone 4.7 area* question. ( waaahhaaa, I wish we were zone 5.5 at least....so many lovely plants cut off....)

First we planted the herb pots. (Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, chives, lavender, & basil.)

And labeled everything.

Then we got down to REAL business, with all of the vegetables & flowers.

Here are some of our finished rooting cells. (That plethora of chafing pans surely did come in handy!! Five jiffy pack peat cells fit perfectly there-in.)

Update: The next morning we woke up and ALREADY some of the lettuce, spinach, peas, and tomatoes were sprouting out!! YEAH!

One of the tricks?

A plate, some napkins, and a spritzer filled with very warm water. We also watered down the rooting cells with the warm water after filling them with soil. Once the seeds sat on the wet paper towels for a few minutes, we just sprinkled them onto the top of the cells. Then we plastic-wrapped the whole affair & let them sit overnight. Next morning, we spritzed them with warm water again, sprinkled a light layer of soil over the top, and spritzed again. And what do you know, those little seeds have already started sprouting! The kids are thrilled, as we didn't think we would get such immediate results ~ in fact, I was going off of the pkg info, which said germination in 5-10 days. so... WOO ~hoo!!

Shout out to my sister ~ Hester, you would SOO love homeschooling ~ in fact, I think my other sistah's would too, it's so much more fun than public, AND you can do SO much more! I can't wait till the sidewalks are free of ice & snow, as we are going to hold school at the parks, & etc. We can ride our bikes over to the greenbelt, the museum, and several other parks ~ it is just SOO much cooler than public! :-D